Tag Archives: poland

Every year, thousands of people from all over the Baltic region flock to an island in northwest Poland called Wolin to attend the festival of Vikings and Slavs. It’s essentially a big renaissance fair, but with a Viking flair. I just might have to move our time table to make it for this year’s celebration. Maybe I’ll even score an outfit and take part in the battle.

It seems like more and more folks out there are looking for options that don’t include maintaining a presence in the USofA. Everyone has a different reason, it seems, but the key point is that everyone HAS a reason. Sure, there are the die hard patriots out there who wave the red, white, and blue, cook burgers and hot dogs on the 4th, and watch football religiously on Sundays after church, but the numbers of disillusioned are growing.

Polish medical degrees are transferable to the United States. Not a lot of people know that.

So why med school? From everything we’ve been hearing, it’s a bad time to be a doctor, and a worse time to go to school. According to the British Medical Journal, doctor satisfaction is at an all-time low; half of doctors say they wouldn’t even get into medicine again, starting over, down from 69% just a YEAR ago. That could just be some political grandstanding, but the reasons cited are specific to the increases in paperwork and the corresponding limits placed on actual patient interaction that drives dissatisfaction.

To make matters worse, even their salaries are falling, in some specialties by 10%. That’s especially troubling when you consider the fact that American medical schools can cost upwards of half a million dollars when all is said and done. Doctors in some states might not even make much more than high school teachers. It’s hard to look at those numbers and see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Med school is notoriously difficult. Law students like to think they have it rough, but they need three years of education, whereas med students are in for four years and a residency (3-7) and possibly a fellowship (1-4) and all of those years are likely going to require 80+ hour weeks of reading, studying, and preparing for exams and clinicals. So, why med school?

Poland

As I covered in my previous post about Poland, the two biggest draws are the fact that my wife’s family lives there, so we will have a lot of local support, and med school is far cheaper there than in the US. I will not face the massive student loan anchor that most American students do. If the kiddos get a little crazy, and the wife and I need a break, we will have aunts and uncles to watch them for a breather. That is my fortunate reality, and it is huge.

Finances

Debt aside, doctors still make pretty decent money. My family and I will be pretty much set for life once I get the ball rolling with my career. I have a few connections to physicians and hospitals in the States if I come back here for internships or residency, so I’m not worried about fighting for unwanted spots that don’t get me the benefits I want. It’s a good gig.

STEM

I love science and math. Sometimes it aggravates me to no end, and there have been times in discussions or debates where I want to throw books/objects or commit felonious assault to random strangers who don’t seem to get it, but overall, it’s my passion. I’ve tried a number of different jobs in the STEM fields, but none of them fully caught my attention. I have been working in the medical field in a part time capacity while exploring other options, and I’m now jumping in with both feet.

Status

What can I say? It feels good to feel important. I don’t plan on being one of those asshole doctors who parks a car he can barely afford in the handicapped space just to show everyone that he’s in charge, but I’d like people to know my name instead of being, “Hey you!” I also don’t mind steak dinners, decent wine, and traveling to interesting places, so it all ties in rather nicely.

There’s a great little summary of some language help resources over at Roosh’s new site, Return of Kings, tailored specifically for the Polish language. If you are unfamiliar with Roosh, he’s an international traveler known best for his guides on how to attract women in the various countries he has visited. His new project is a cooperative effort focused heavily on self-improvement and men’s issues. If you get the chance, take a look at what he has to say. Some of it can be shocking, and most of it is politically incorrect, but you can’t clean the house without getting a little dirty!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way…

For one Viking family, the world is very much as Dickens portrayed. This desperate winter season hearkens a hopeful spring, when we will take to the waters like our forefathers and invade Poland with the promise of riches and valor to come. I suppose “take to the waters” might be a bit of hyperbole, as we’ll likely fly coach, but the sentiment remains.

The decision to transplant my family to another continent, to a nation with a foreign culture and language, was not a decision made lightly. Many factors led to this decision, starting years ago; decisions I made as far as my previous education, my wife’s family background, my experiences in the military, and the life my wife and I have lived since becoming one unit. I’ll break down my goals, my progress, and my reasoning that led me to where I am now, and share my experience and ideas with anyone interested in something like what I’m doing, or just interested in general.